ZVOX Blog

Posted by
Tom Hannaher
,
Sunday, March 22, 2009

If you ask people "what's the most important thing about a home
theater system," most of the will say surround sound. But in our
opinion, surround sound effects play only a minor role in creating a
theater-like experience in your home. In fact, on our list of five key
elements, it comes in last place. Here's the list:

Audio
accuracy. A home theater system should sound "right." Musically
accurate. It should have proper octave-to-octave tonal balance (each
musical octave should have the same "weight"). You don't need "a golden
ear" to tell the difference between accurate speakers and inaccurate
speakers. The best way is to listen to a good vocal recording with
non-amplified musical instruments (we used to wear out copies of Joni
Mitchell's "Blue" in the 70s in stereo stores). Does the vocalist sound
like she's in the room in front of you -- or like she's singing in an
alley (or through a megaphone)? Does the guitar sound natural, or
tinny? Is the piano strident or clear? This is important. Basic sound
quality -- musical accuracy -- is WAY MORE important than anything else
when you evaluate a home theater system. The sad reality is that most
under-$600 surround sound systems use speakers that we would consider
"highly questionable." Manufacturers put a lot of emphasis on watts,
exotic features, gazillions of inputs and -- most important -- swoopy
plastic cabinets. But they can't seem to muster the fortitude necessary
to spend what it takes to put in good speakers.

Vocal
clarity. This is a biggy. It shouldn't be that hard to create an audio
system that allows people to understand spoken words. But we've heard a
number of systems where vocal clarity, well, sucks. You shouldn't have
to strain to hear the voices -- or crank the volume way up. A good home
theater system will use high-quality speakers that reproduce the human
voice with crystal clarity. Odd retro-fact: monaural speakers are great
at voices. That's why the middle speaker(s) in ZVOX systems is "all
channel" (our fancy way of saying "monaural").

Dynamic impact.
If you're watching a "big" action movie or a concert video, you want
the audio system to be able to go from "soft" to "very loud" without
straining and without compressing the sound. Dynamics are often
determined by some pretty predictable factors: speaker driver size,
amplifier size and cabinet size. Smaller speaker systems -- including
ZVOX models -- have less dynamic impact. Yes, we know everybody wants
smaller and smaller speakers...and laptop computers....and iPods...and
phones. But with speakers eventually smaller is NOT better. We've
compared our ZVOX 425 system (five 3.25" speakers, two 4"
long-excursion woofers, 133-watt amp, big cabinet) to our best-known
competitor (incredible numbers of 1.5" speakers). On a big movie, with
big special effects, we think there's no comparison.

Bass
response. A home theater without good bass isn't a home theater. And by
"good" we don't mean just loud. Bass needs to be accurate, wide-ranging
and musical. It's pretty easy to design a subwoofer that thuds away
with 60-90 Hz bass -- reproducing all bass as one sound (also known as
a "one note subwoofer"). But bass that sounds right, especially below
60 Hz, is a different story. Try picking up the subwoofer that comes
with an inexpensive home-theater-in-a-box. If it's as light as an empty
suitcase, it's going to sound like an empty suitcase. Push in on its
sidewall. If they flex, they're going to absorb the energy of the
woofer instead of transmitting it. Listen to a recording of a stand-up
bass -- you should be able to clearly hear the tonal differences
between the notes, and to some extent you should actually "feel" the
bass.

Surround
effects. When home theater systems first came out, we all scrambled
trying to find demo material that made the rear speakers seem
important. Stuff coming from in back of you was cool, and it was sure
different. It's fun to be "immersed" in the sound of a movie. But we
believe surround effects are the least important factor on this list.
Here's a story. About eight years ago, when I was VP of Marketing at
Cambridge SoundWorks, I had a pretty serious surround sound system. But
we were having our living room repainted, so everything had to be
disconnected an covered with tarps. About a day after the system got
put back together, I noticed that there was nothing coming out of the
rear speakers. The painters hadn't connected the rear speakers. I
decided to not mention this, and wait to see when any of my family
members or friends mentioned the lack of rear speaker sound effects.
Two months later, when nobody had said a word about it, I quietly
removed the rear speakers and put them in the attic.

Bottom
line: If you want a home theater system that you'll really love, the
most important thing to consider is basic high fidelity. Realistic
sound is more important than realistic sound effects.

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